The biggest myth in fitness is that aerobic exercise is good for fat loss. Nothing could be further from the truth. So-called fitness experts will give you two reasons why you should do aerobic exercise as part of your fat-loss program:

Myth #1: Aerobic exercise burns more calories. While aerobic exercise does burn calories, it does not burn them efficiently. For example, if you exercise aerobically for 45 minutes on an elliptical machine, you’ll burn roughly 500 calories. However, if you do 30 minutes of resistance training (weight-lifting), and 15 minutes of interval training (alternating high-intensity and low-intensity exercise), you’ll burn roughly 700 calories—40% more! What’s more, your metabolism will stay elevated for 24 to 36 hours after your workout, which doesn’t happen with aerobic exercise.

Myth #2: Aerobic exercise will put you in your “fat burning zone.” Yes, you will burn a greater percentage of calories from fat during your aerobic workout, but keep in mind that this is a larger percentage of a smaller number so it’s less fat overall. Also, resistance training has been repeatedly shown to increase the percentage of calories that your body burns from fat during the rest of the day, which is when we burn 80 to 90% of our calories.

The reality is that 15 minutes of interval training will do more for your cardiovascular fitness than 45 minutes of jogging.